Metabolic variability in seafloor brines revealed by carbon and sulphur dynamics
Metabolic variability in seafloor brines revealed by carbon and sulphur dynamics
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DOI：
10.1038/ngeo475
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发表时间：
2009-05-01
影响因子：
18.3
通讯作者：
Meile, Christof D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Joye, Samantha B.;Samarkin, Vladimir A.;Meile, Christof D.
从海底深处的热储层涌上来的盐水为海底提供了丰富的能量基质和营养物质，供各种微生物生态系统使用。由盐水渗漏形成的当代高盐环境可以提供对早期地球（1）或外星物体（2）上微生物代谢和分布的见解。在这里，我们使用地球化学和遗传分析，以表征微生物群落的组成和代谢在墨西哥湾的两个海底卤水：一个活跃的泥火山和一个静止的盐水池。两种盐水环境都是缺氧和高盐的。然而，硫酸盐还原和乙酸盐生产率在盐水池中要高得多，而泥火山支持更高的甲烷生产率。我们没有发现甲烷厌氧氧化的证据，尽管在这两个网站高甲烷通量。我们的结论是，对比的微生物群落组成和代谢的差异，溶解有机质输入从深层地下和不同的流体平流率之间的两个网站。
Brine fluids that upwell from deep, hot reservoirs below the sea bed supply the sea floor with energy-rich substrates and nutrients that are used by diverse microbial ecosystems. Contemporary hypersaline environments formed by brine seeps may provide insights into the metabolism and distribution of microorganisms on the early Earth(1) or on extraterrestrial bodies(2). Here we use geochemical and genetic analyses to characterize microbial community composition and metabolism in two seafloor brines in the Gulf of Mexico: an active mud volcano and a quiescent brine pool. Both brine environments are anoxic and hypersaline. However, rates of sulphate reduction and acetate production are much higher in the brine pool, whereas the mud volcano supports much higher rates of methane production. We find no evidence of anaerobic oxidation of methane, despite high methane fluxes at both sites. We conclude that the contrasting microbial community compositions and metabolisms are linked to differences in dissolved-organic-matter input from the deep subsurface and different fluid advection rates between the two sites.